One Life.
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Mathematician
18871920
Failed College Twice. Then Cambridge Called.
7 sourcesTranscriptRead while listening
The story in brief
Srinivasa Ramanujan grew up poor in Kumbakonam, a south Indian temple town. At 15 he taught himself from a book of thousands of formulas with few proofs. Ignoring every other subject, he failed college twice. Patrons helped him, and in 1913, now a clerk in Madras, he mailed nine pages of formulas to G. H. Hardy at Cambridge. Hardy decided the strangest of them had to be true, since no one could have invented them, and wanted him in England.
His strict Hindu community forbade crossing the sea, so he refused. Then, as his friends told it, his mother dreamed the family goddess told her not to stand in his way. In 1914 he sailed. Hardy taught him proof, and said Ramanujan taught him far more. Some results were wrong; most were right. He fell gravely ill in wartime England in 1917. In 1918, at 30, he was elected to the Royal Society.
Very ill, he went home in 1919. His last letter to Hardy, in January 1920, introduced “mock theta functions”. He worked until about four days before he died in Madras on 26 April 1920, aged 32. In 2012 functions like those turned up in the mathematics of black holes. Mathematicians needed ten volumes, finished in 2018, to check his notebooks.
In his own words
I have not trodden through the conventional regular course which is followed in a University course, but I am striking out a new path for myself.
I have found a friend in you who views my labours sympathetically. … To preserve my brains I want food and this is now my first consideration.
No, it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways.
Sources (7)
- G. H. Hardy, obituary of Ramanujan, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (1921), printing his first letter in full
- P. V. Seshu Aiyar and R. Ramachandra Rao, “Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920)”, in Collected Papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1927)
- G. H. Hardy, Ramanujan: Twelve Lectures on Subjects Suggested by His Life and Work (1940)
- B. C. Berndt, Ramanujan’s Notebooks, five parts (1985–1998), and G. Andrews and B. C. Berndt, Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook, five parts (2005–2018)
- K. Srinivasa Rao, “Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920): life and work of the mathemagician” (arXiv), and his Ramanujan pages at IMSc, Chennai
- A. Dabholkar, S. Murthy and D. Zagier, “Quantum Black Holes, Wall Crossing, and Mock Modular Forms” (2012)
- Royal Society, “Revisiting Ramanujan” (2018)
Updated October 5, 2026.
Transcript
A clerk who failed college twice mailed 9 pages of maths to Cambridge.
A leading Cambridge mathematician decided the strangest formulas had to be true: no one could have made them up.
So Cambridge sent for Srinivasa Ramanujan. He had 7 years to live.
His real teacher was a book. At 15, he found one full of formulas that rarely showed why they worked.
Too poor to waste paper, he worked on a slate, and filled notebooks with answers.
He ignored every other subject, and failed college twice.
Now a clerk, he wrote to a Cambridge stranger, G. H. Hardy: "I am striking out a new path for myself."
Hardy wanted him in England. He refused: his strict Hindu community forbade crossing the sea.
His mother then dreamed, as his friends told it, that their goddess told her not to stand in his way.
At 26, he sailed. Hardy taught him to prove his answers, and said Ramanujan taught him far more.
Some of his answers were wrong. Most were right, and astonishing.
Far from home, in wartime England, he fell gravely ill.
At 30, the clerk from Madras was elected to Isaac Newton's old academy, the Royal Society.
Hardy recalled calling his taxi's number dull: 1729. From his sickbed, Ramanujan said no: it's the smallest sum of two cubes, two different ways.
That number was already in his notebook from India.
Very ill, he went home to India, and sent Hardy one last letter of strange new formulas.
He worked until about 4 days before he died, at 32.
92 years later, formulas like those in his last letter turned up in the mathematics of black holes.
Mathematicians needed 10 volumes, and nearly a century, to check everything in his notebooks.
